Traumatic brain injuries and acquired brain injuries affect millions of people each year in the United States and beyond. These injuries leave devastating symptoms, some of which could be recovered through medications and/or rehabilitation treatments.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive therapy used to stimulate local regions of the brain. It utilizes electrical currents generated in coils in order to induce magnetic fields of varying frequencies. These magnetic pulses with a strength on the order of one Tesla are then focused through specific placement on the head in order to polarize target areas of the brain. In recent years, TMS has been used to treat depression (Levkovitz, Y., et al. Brain Stimul., vol. 2(4), pp. 188-200, 2009) and several neurodegenerative disease including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's (Anderkova, L., and I. Rektorova J. Neurol Sci., vol. 339(1-2), pp. 15-25, 2014), with varying degrees of success. TMS has also been studied in patients with upper limb weakness following stroke with results that suggest possible benefits (Corti, M., et al. Am. J. Phys. Med. Rehabil., vol. 91(3), pp. 254-270, 2012). The effectiveness of TMS for brain injury rehabilitation has been demonstrated in several recent studies (Sack, A. T., et al. J. Cogn. Neurosci., vol. 21(2), pp. 207-221, 2009; Levkovitz, Y., et al. Clin. Neurophysiol., vol. 118(12), pp. 2730-2744, 2007). Stimulating nerve cells in affected area via TMS may also aid in the rehabilitation of various stroke side effects other than just limb weakness.
After a stroke, many of the patient's cognitive and motor abilities are affected. Memory and motor control in specific areas may be impaired or lost. Current TMS for stroke rehabilitation is performed solely in a hospital setting, with each session lasting about 40 minutes. This procedure is costly, limiting availability to many patients who are mobility-impaired to start with. The present invention, in an effort to find an alternative, provides a lightweight headwear for transcranial magnetic therapy over a prolonged period of application time and one that is suitable for outpatient, e.g., at-home, use.